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Douglas Tompkins, founder of North Face & Esprit, has died

by Melanie Gropler — December 10, 2015

Douglas Tompkins, founder of the iconic clothing brands North Face and Esprit, has died this week after a kayaking accident in Chile. He was 72.

Tompkins founded the North Face brand back in 1966 as a small ski and backpacking retail shop in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, and helped forge the company’s mantra, “Never Stop Exploring.” Additional, he started selling “plain Jane” dresses out of a station wagon, together with his wife and a third co-founder, Jane Tise. That business would later become the multibillion-dollar retailer Esprit.

In an official statement, the North Face workforce and management said: „We are very saddened by the news of Doug Tompkins' death. He was a passionate advocate of the environment and his legacy in terms of nature conservation will help to conserve places that can still be discovered by future generations. We will certainly miss him, our thoughts are with his family in these days.”